Creating Freedom Movements

more justice, more joy

We nurture visionary grassroots leaders who build beloved community, cross-issue solidarity and infrastructures of justice & joy. Bringing together social movement history and analysis, healing practices, the arts, and practical skills, we heal people and the planet by moving from cultures of separation & domination to cultures of connection & reciprocity.

more justice, more joy

Our year-long program -- led by faculty members with decades of experience working at the intersections of social justice, community organizing, the arts, education, and healing -- consists of 9 months of weekly workshops, followed by 3 months of mentorship in which participants create projects that increase justice & joy in their communities.

Through the workshops, participants become more well-rounded in practical skills, more visionary in perspectives, more creative in modes of expression & more connected as co-creators in a world of people, plants, animals, water & land who need us to act boldly. Their projects create infrastructures of justice and joy that allow us to divest from oppressive institutions and grow a world in which all can thrive.​By spending a year together with people from diverse backgrounds with a range of issues they are most passionate about, participants also practice building beloved community and cross-issue solidarity, strengthening the networks and collaboration we need to grow our collective power.

from cultures of separation & dominationto cultures of connection & relationships of reciprocity

From the Pulse Nightclub to Charlottesville, from ICE raids to human-made “natural” disasters, from threats of nuclear war to daily struggles of poverty, racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, we’re assaulted with the destruction of life due to systems built on domination and separation. Many people do essential work on these crises, yet the crises continue. Much of this is because critical responses to urgent needs are rarely matched by enough resources to do the slower work of fundamentally transforming ourselves and creating new institutions based on connection and reciprocity. It's what legendary Detroit philosopher and activist Grace Lee Boggs called "Visionary Organizing."​Creating Freedom Movements resists these patterns of domination and separation by building reciprocal relationships to each other and the planet. This requires rethinking:

the internalization of competition and hierarchy as natural

fears of scarcity that pit us against each other and lead to hoarding resources

mistrust of others that result in gated communities, prisons, borders, segregation, and murder

the treatment of the planet as and people as commodities to be exploited

how we numb ourselves through addictions to the pain of recognizing these things

At Creating Freedom Movements, we know from lived experience that we CAN both remember indigenous ways & evolve into new ways of being which respect and nourish people and planet and foster solidarity. We are committed to continuing to practice and spread these skills!​

READY TO CREATE MORE JUSTICE AND JOY?

THIS WORK IS PEOPLE-POWERED!PLEASE DONATE

We are committed to keeping this program accessible to all, and to paying the artists, educators and activists a living wage so that they can dedicate their time to this work. To reduce overhead costs, to keep the focus on the programming, and to keep building a movement of people invested in this work, our fundraising philosophy prioritizes cultivating individual donors. We hope you will join us in sustaining Creating Freedom Movements and generating more justice and joy in the world!